Archive for October, 2011

Happy Halloween. Last year I wrote about the Sam, from Trick r Treat, who I’m still hoping to get recognised as the official mascot for Halloween, so this year, having given up on my quest to find a Halloween party much earlier than usual, I decided to watch some classic horror movies. Tonight I will be watching The Blair Witch Project and the original Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street. I love horror movies; so much that I’ve become desensitised and no longer get scared watching them. It’s sad really, so maybe by going back and watching these classic, which I’ve never seen before, I will be able to reawaken that sense of fear. I doubt it though, The Exorcist pretty much confirmed, for me, that old movies are no longer scary.

I’ve heard that The Blair Witch Project is pretty good, but people are usually wrong when they tell me I’ll have trouble sleeping after I watch something. I’ve seen newer versions of both A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween, but who knows the scare factor could still be in the originals. Check out the trailers;

Okay, so none of them looks scary, but you never know.

What do you think? Do you have anything special planned for Halloween? Which are scarier old or new horror movies? Should Sam be the official Halloween mascot?

A Superman sized kick in the teeth for anyone that’s been paying to play DC Universe Online, as Sony announce it will soon be free to play.

On the 1st of November DC Universe Online will have two new modes, free play and Premium. Free play, as the name suggests, doesn’t cost a thing, but has no voice chat and a limited number of character spaces and inventory slots. For a one off payment of five dollars, or the equivalent of five dollars, players can upgrade to a Premium account, this means voice chat and more slots. Some people may be used to paying and could want to continue, as crazy as that sounds, this will be an option, it’s called a Legendary account. With that you can the same features that players are currently enjoying, including the ability to buy more inventory slots. Legendary mode costs 15 dollars a month.

Before it came out, I thought DC Universe Online sounded amazing, but I decided not to buy it when I heard it cost a monthly fee. Bringing on a free play mode, with an optional upgrade, is a great way to bring on people that, like me, didn’t want to, or couldn’t, afford to invest so much into a game. In my opinion, it’s going to get some fans through the door.

What do you think? Are you already playing DC Universe Online? Did you not buy it due to the cost? Would you get it for the free play feature? Let me know by voting and leaving a comment below. Also don’t forget to subscribe/follow and click the like button.

Merry Christmas… yeah apparently we’re skipping Halloween or at least taking a temporary break from it to watch Arthur Christmas, which comes to cinemas on the 11th of November in Ireland and the 23rd of November in the US. Please note that both dates are after Halloween so technically you don’t have to worry about losing the Halloween spirit.

The film stars James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent and Ashley Jensen. The film takes the story of Santa and plays with it, adding high tech machinery and specially trained ninja-like elves. Rather than being one man, the movie says that Santa is a job that is passed down from generation to generation and as Santa approaches retirement age his son, Steve, is preparing to take on the role. However, Steve is more into technology and lacks the heart required to be Santa. Then there is Santa’s youngest son Arthur, who genuinely cares about the children that write to Santa, but is extremely clumsy.

One Christmas, a present is accidently not delivered and, after everyone else refuses to go, Arthur decides to take matters into his own hands, with the help of his grandfather and an elf named Bryony. The rest of the film follows the group on the delivery, as well as the characters back at the North Pole who try to track down Arthur. It was surprising that the whole movie was about the one delivery, it seemed like it would go a different way. The film was funny and heartfelt, but there were times when I was thinking ‘just get to the house already, what else can go wrong’.

There are some great one liners, though they may be completely lost on children. Some encourage violent behaviour, so the older kids should have plenty of ammo there. Then there was the reindeer that seemed to die off little by little throughout the film, though it is eventually revealed that they are all safe there are moments when you’re like ‘did they just kill off those reindeer’. It’s aimed at kids, but there were people complaining that it isn’t kid friendly. Personally, I don’t see too much harm in it, but I do see the points that these parents were making.

It was a very enjoyable movie, filled with Christmas spirit which wasn’t great in October, but will be more welcome when it hits cinemas next month. If you’re looking for a clever, funny Christmas movie that will scar your kids from life then this is the film for you. That was a joke the scarring will heal over time.

What do you think? Do you think it’s too early to be talking about Christmas? Are you planning on seeing this film? Would you like to be Santa? Let me know by voting and leaving a comment below. Also don’t forget to subscribe/follow and click the like button.

Tintin started out as a comic series, then he got his own TV show and now he has a 3D feature film, not bad for a young Belgian report and if this film does well a sequel won’t be far behind.

The film is a mix of three Tintin stories; The Secret of the Unicorn, The Crab with the Golden Claws and Red Rackham’s Treasure. As someone who isn’t really familiar with the show or comics I can’t say how a fan would view this, but I feel they were woven together very well. I was engulfed in this amazing story that had so many twists and turns. Perhaps it was the joining of three stories that gave it that intricacy.

I’m sure there are a lot more than I noticed, but even I, someone who has extremely little knowledge of the comics and cartoon, could see that there were nods to the original in there. An obvious, yet funny, one occurs near the beginning of the film when an artist is drawing Tintin. I don’t want to spoil it, so I won’t go into detail.

The movie is CGI and looks amazing. From looking back at the old animation I can see that there is a definite resemblance, more so with other characters than Tintin himself. Even the locations are reminiscent of the ones seen in the episodes that follow the stories that the movie is based on. Spielberg has been planning on making a Tintin movie for a very long time and at one stage he wanted to make it live action. Having seen the film, I’m glad he didn’t, because I strongly believe that live action would not have done it justice.

Though it’s popular with filmmakers, I personally am against the 3D revolution; seriously it’s as if they don’t want people who wear glasses to go to the cinema. Tintin could easily have done without it. Who cares about depth if nothings coming flying at your face it doesn’t need to be in 3D. Adding 3D helps make bad horror movies seem good, pure and simple. Tintin has a great plot, amazing graphics and a brilliant case, it doesn’t need gimmicky 3D.

Tintin comes to Irish and UK cinemas on the 26th of October and US cinemas on the 21st of December. I recommend seeing it with or without kids, as the plot is smart enough to keep an adult entertained and the graphics are cool enough to distract children while their parents watch the film.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the originals? Do you think the film looks good? When did you get sick of 3D? Let me know by voting and leaving a comment below. Also don’t forget to subscribe/follow and click the like button.

On the 22nd of October 2010 I sat down to write about Paranormal Activity 2. I was babysitting my nephew at the time and I described the movie as ‘so packed with jumps that you’ll spend the majority of the film in the air’. It’s hard to believe that that was a whole year ago. I’ve written so much since then and, from re-reading it, I think I’ve become a better writer.

For the next six months I wrote every day. I was hard, but it was the hit counter that kept me going. I’d check it five or six times a day, between classes. Knowing that people read what I wrote was, and still is, such an amazing feeling. I’d probably write even if no one read the blog, but I wouldn’t be as happy doing it. So thank you to everyone who’s reading this or has ever read my blog. I really appreciate it.

A while ago I mentioned that I was planning a surprise, but it never happened. Well over the last week I’ve returned to working on that and it’s ready to post today. I wanted to make a YouTube channel to post summaries of reviews in video form. This won’t affect the blog, which will still be the main focus, but just for people who don’t have the time to read the full thing. I prepared a small trailer and after watching it I realised how bad it is, so it will still be a little while before the videos properly begin. Take a look and feel free to laugh about it in the comment section, but keep in mind it was supposed to be funny.

Thanks again to everyone reading, please leave a comment to let me know what you think of the site.

Today I graduated from college. Don’t worry I’m still in full time education working towards my degree, but I still graduated from Coláiste Dhúlaigh. It’s hard to believe that I’ll probably never be back attending class there. It’s a really great place and I met some amazing people there, who hopefully will keep in touch. It’s stange, an assignment from Coláiste Dhúlaigh is actually the reason I started this blog a year ago.

Also tomorrow is my one year blogiversary. So be sure to check back. Now off to celebrate some more.

In 2009, Zombieland was released in cinemas worldwide. The movie followed Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone as they, along with Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin, fought to survive in a world overrun with zombies. The movie was praised by critics and it looked like a sequel was on the cards, but unfortunately it never happened.

However, all is not lost as Zombieland may be coming to the small screen. Though it eventually became a movie, Zombieland was originally intended as a TV show in the first place. For this reason, the producer of the film, Gavin Polone thinks that it will be a smooth transition taking it from film to TV series and with the help of the film’s writers, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, he could be right.

The producers are aiming to have this show on other screens for the 2012-2013 season. Besides that not many details have been revealed, except of course that the original cast will not be returning. This was to be expected has they’re big Hollywood stars now and there’s still a stigma attached to doing TV, plus TV doesn’t generally pay as much.

It would have been great to see the actors from the film return, but, that aside, will this idea even work on TV? The main problem will probably be budget. The film has such a wide open feel, like it looks like the entire world has been killed or turned into zombies or both. It’s to going to be easy to pull that off on a TV budget. Still I am curious to see what they come up with and I remain hopefully optimistic that it will not tarnish the film’s good name.

What do you think? Are you excited about this? Did you like the movie? Would you like to like in a world overrun by flesh eating zombies? Let me know by voting and leaving a comment below. Also don’t forget to subscribe/follow and click the like button.

Devil May Cry may be being remade into a half angel half demon mess (with kickass gameplay), but that doesn’t mean Capcom can’t still make money off the old games.

Capcom have confirmed that in early 2012 PS3 and Xbox360 owners will be able to buy the first three Devil May Cry games in HD. This means better graphics, plus additional features. It also means paying $39.99, which is around €29. That’s fine if you don’t already have the games, but is it worth paying it just for better graphics and a few extra features?

In a way I’m lucky. Despite having completed all the Devil May Cry games, I only own three and four (one and two are pretty hard to find nowadays). It would be nice to own them all, though I’d have three twice. It really all comes down to the extra content. If there’s really cool add-ons then it may be worth buying, but in the likely event that the only thing new is a few trophies, it won’t be.

Then there’s the fact that you’re essentially paying to play a dead franchise. The series is getting rebooted and rebuying the old ones won’t turn it back. I love the old DMC games, but I’m still excited about the new one and re-releasing the old ones is just going to muddy the water even more, though it will probably make a lot of money.

What do you think? Are you going to rebuy the first three Devil May Cry games? Have you played the originals? Which was your favourite? Let me know by voting and leaving a comment below. Also don’t forget to subscribe/follow and click the like button.

Recently it was announced that Resident Evil Retribution, which comes to cinemas next year, will feature Ada Wong, Leon S. Kennedy and Barry Burton. Well now all three roles have been cast and filming has begun, plus the sound stage clasped but no one was serious injured (they’re probably going to save money on fake cuts and bruises though).

Ada will be played by Li Bingbing. Like Ada, Bingbing is Chinese and thanks to Mila Jovovich and her Twitter page we get to see what she looks like as Ada. The makeup artists have done a great job making her look like the character, as you can see in the picture below which was taken on set.

For a long time it was rumoured that Jensen Ackles would play Leon if he was ever brought into the films, but due to scheduling issues with Supernatural this wasn’t possible. Instead the role went to Johann Urb. Urb is an Estonian-American actor who is probably best known for his role in Eastwick. Though some fans are disappointed about Jensen Ackles not getting the role, we won’t really be able to make a judgement until we see Urb in action when the first trailers are released.

Kevin Durand has been cast as Barry Burton. Personally, I remember Durand from Lost where he played Martin Keamy. Durand did a good job on Lost, which is one of the best shows ever made, and hopefully he’ll do just as good a job in Resident Evil. Plus he does kind of look like Barry.

Now that the Resident Evil cast is complete it’s time to just sit back and enjoy the tweets. What do you think? Are you happy with the cast? Do you think they resemble the characters? Which character is your favourite? Let me know by voting and leaving a comment below. Also don’t forget to subscribe/follow and click the like button.

Remember those hand sanitizers you used to use? Well prepare for a massive dose of paranoia on the 21st of October when Contagion comes to Irish cinemas.

Contagion is about the outbreak of a new airborne virus that is fast moving and can kill within days. It’s told from the perspective of several people, ranging from scientists trying to cure and contain the virus, to everyday people just trying to survive in a society that is overthrown with panic. The movie stars Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and many more, all of which do a great job even Matt Damon.

One thing that really worked for the film was that they weren’t afraid to take risks; some big players die in this film, which doesn’t generally happen in modern cinema. Here they had a story that they wanted to tell and they told it without sugar coating it. To say it was predictable would be a lie because I honestly didn’t see a lot of it coming and most of the time my theories were completely wrong, which is a good thing in my eyes. It’s refreshing to see a movie that is so different than what you normally see. People say that slasher movies are scary because they could really happen, but I think what’s scary about this is that yes it could happen and if it did you’d have no way of defending yourself.

The film aims to be realistic and it shows as the process in which the scientists investigate the virus is very detailed and was interesting to learn. Director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Burns have been praised for their accurate depiction of science, which in films is generally more dramatic than its real life counterpart. Another aspect done very well was the panic caused by the outbreak; people looting shops and pharmacies and even resorting to kidnapping to make sure that they get what they need to survive.

It’s scary to think of how quickly something like that could spread and watching the film will definitely have you thinking twice before you touch anything, but I would recommend seeing it. It’s not often a film this honest comes along, so don’t miss the chance to see it in cinemas.

What do you think? Are you paranoid about viruses? Did you think the film looks realistic? Will you go see it in the cinema? Let me know by voting and leaving a comment below. Also don’t forget to subscribe/follow and click the like button.